The highlight for Colorado fans on Wednesday night at Coors Field arrived in the seventh inning when Nuggets forward Bruce Brown’s image flashed on the giant scoreboard above left field. He received a standing ovation.
The key role player for the newly-crowned NBA Western Conference champions was among the announced crowd of 19,546 who watched the Rockies get drubbed by the Marlins, 10-2.
This was an ugly game for the local nine, who were outhit 10-4. The four hits tied for the Rockies’ fewest at home this season.
Karl Kauffmann, making his second major-league start, pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on six hits. The right-hander walked three and fanned two. Kauffmann kept Colorado in the game — with the help of double plays to end the first and second innings — until the Marlins ripped into him in the fifth inning with four hits, including a two-run double by Luis Arraez, who’s hitting .371.
“Definitely, that’s going to be key is going forward, getting them the third time through (the lineup),” Kauffmann said. “That’s what I have learned from my first two starts. Teams have been making adjustments, so I have to be better at countering that and making those adjustments in return.”
Long reliever Peter Lambert fared even worse than Kauffmann. In 2 2/3 innings, Lambert was blasted for five runs on six hits. He served up a solo homer to Jonathan Davis in the sixth and a leadoff homer to Jorge Soler in the seventh.
“The difference today was he (left the ball) up,” manager Bud Black said. “Some of the breaking balls they hit just didn’t make it to the bottom of the strike zone.”
After a promising start, the Rockies’ maddeningly inconsistent offense managed just one hit after the second inning.
Miami right-hander Sandy Alcantara came to Coors Field as a struggling pitcher. Last season’s National League Cy Young Award winner was 1-5 with a 5.05 ERA when he took the mound. Plus, the last time he pitched in Colorado, on Aug. 6, 2021, he had one of the worst starts of his career. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings allowing a career-high 10 runs on 10 hits with three home runs served up.
Alcantara was not dominant Wednesday night, but he was effective, allowing two runs on four hits, walking three, and striking out three.
Early on, it looked like the Rockies would batter Alcantara. Charlie Blackmon led off the first with a triple and scored on Jurickson Profar’s double as Profar extended his on-base streak to 32 consecutive games. The Rockies loaded the bases in the second and seemed poised to take command, but Alcantara struck out Profar to end the threat.
From that point on, the Marlins’ right-hander cruised until Elias Diaz led off the sixth with a line-drive blast left. It was Diaz’s fifth homer of the season and his team-leading 25th RBI.
After winning the first two games of the four-game set, the Rockies will attempt to win the series on Thursday afternoon.
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